Posts Tagged ‘dc comics’

Once again, it’s a brand new episode of The Flickcast. But don’t worry, still not counting them to make sure you know we’re awesome and can deliver a new episode every week. Well, maybe a little bit because, well, we are awesome.

On this week’s show, Chris and Joe talk about a whole bunch of stuff including the return of The Walking Dead, the new Poltergeist trailer, Game of Thrones Season 5, the upcoming Daredevil series from Netflix, the New New 52 and what’s going on with DC comics and a whole lot more, more more. Yep, it’s another long episode, but it’s chock full of good stuff. We hope you enjoy.

Picks this week include Chris’ pick of the new Star Wars comic from Marvel and Joe’s pick of the new TV series Backstrom, starring Rain Wilson.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship, or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook, Google+ or via email.

When I began the task of playing catch-up on pop culture, one of the names I was determined to investigate deeper was none other than Alan Moore; legendary comic scribe, self-proclaimed wizard and all around “don’t get too close to him” guy. I’ve read most of his more popular stories numerous times over the years (Watchmen, Batman: The Killing Joke and the classic “For the Man Who Has Everything…” story in Superman Annual 11, to name a few); but now it was time for something new. Well…new to me, at least.

My first choice was pretty simple actually, for when I was a wide-eyed 9 year old I had somehow gotten my hands on a couple of his Saga of the Swamp Thing issues. I remember absolutely nothing about the story, probably because at that age his style of writing may as well have been written in Arabic to a child. I only remember the images of grotesque beings prancing around in a horrifying setting.

Apparently that was enough for me, as I didn’t continue on with the series at that time. Almost thirty years later I’m pretty sure I can handle whatever Mr. Moore can throw at me, so I added the recent hardcover collections of his run to my library, waiting for the day when I could jump back into it.

You may be thinking “Oh, look; another crossover where the good guys fight, figure it out and save the day.” I wouldn’t blame you. I had anticipated the same when I sat down to read this 2003 one-shot from DC Comics and Wildstorm Productions. Boy, was I wrong as this was definitely not your cookie-cutter team-up tale. Far from it.

While almost anyone reading comics has read Batman (or, at the very least, is familiar with the Caped Crusader), the same can’t be said for Planetary. With that, I can confidently state that my lack of exposure to the Planetary series and its characters didn’t hamper my reading experience at all. I’d actually argue that this is primarily a Batman-centric story; even though various members of Planetary get more “screen time” than Bats himself.

Which brings me to the creators. Warren Ellis is, well, Warren Ellis. If you don’t know what that means, you haven’t read much of his work. But if you have? You’re nodding along with me right now. Indefinable, he almost always seems to approach a story from a completely different angle than most of us can even conceive, and that’s part of what makes him a fan favorite.

His handling of Batman here is both exciting and (seemingly) an open love letter to the character. There’s barely a beginning or end to this original graphic novel, and frankly, it doesn’t need it.

After the success of Smallville and the warm reception Arrow has gotten thus far, it isn’t a shock to see the DC Universe expanded in the second season of Arrow. This season, Arrow will add Barry Allen to the cast of characters and though he is referred to as Barry Allen and not the Flash, it looks as though his powers will emerge before the end of the season.

Grant Gustin of Glee fame will be tapped for the 8th, 9th and 20th episode of season two of Arrow. Episode 20 specifically with focus on Barry’s origin story which may be a back door attempt at testing the interest in a Flash spinoff series.

One thing of interest, first pointed out by IGN.com, is a 23 year old being slated as a police forensic investigator. Shy of being someone who skipped a few years of school, getting a Masters in Forensic Science and then being passed around to other cities for investigations probably isn’t the most realistic of situations. Although, the same could be said about someone hit by lightening which allows them to tap into the Speed Force.

Do you have a friend who picks apart every movie they see? Or maybe that friend is you? Well, let it be known that you aren’t the only one. And let it be known, you can go somewhere doing it.

If you have heard of a little site by the name of YouTube, you may want to check out the channel CinemaSins. In about six months, CinemaSins has gained close to 400,000 subscribers and over thirty million views just by being “that guy” who decides to tear apart the hard work of so many creative people. (I kind of want his job.)

In this week’s installment, CinemaSins takes a look at what some could consider “low hanging fruit.” Let’s face it, Green Lantern was not a great movie. In fact, it was a pretty bad movie by all stretches of the imagination. And not just for the poor story, poor acting and poor effects…. Actually those are all the reasons it was bad. But CinemaSins helps articulate just what those problems are unlike most of us who are all just so appalled by it that our only response is “It sucks.”

Summer is a great time for movies, especially if you’re a geek. With Iron Man 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness already in theaters, we can next look forward to Man of Steel.

Another new trailer for the Superman reboot has arrived. In this one General Zod issues an ominous message to the people of the Earth: “Your world has sheltered one of my citizens. … To those of you who know his location, the fate of your planet rests in your hands.”

Uh, oh. Does Superman end up kneeling before Zod? What do you think?

Check out the trailer after the break. Man of Steel arrives in theaters on June 14.

After Scribblenauts Unlimited came to the Wii U with a fairly soft launch, a lot of people wondered what might be next, if at all, for the series. Aside from new puzzles, what was there really left you could do for Scribblenauts that hadn’t already been done with the customizability of ScribblenautsUnlimited? I mean, it has “unlimited” in the title. The answer of course is rather fitting, a comic book crossover.

Whenever publishers in comics are in a sales dip, they crossover a more popular character into another series to give it a sales boost. But why stop at just a Batman Scribblenauts or a Scribblenauts Metropolis? WB Games and 5th Cell took the whole DC Universe and brought it over to the Scribblenauts world in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure. In addition to giving the powers of various DC heroes and villains to Maxell, the trailer below indicates that players will be able to actually play as various DC characters in the game as well in the puzzle solving adventure.

Fans of excellent animated superhero adventures are in for a treat today as Warner Bros. is releasing the next installment of their DC Universe animated original movie series. This one, called Superman: Unbound, looks to be great fun and we’ve got some preview images and a video clip to share with you today.

The movie “is based on the Geoff Johns/Gary Frank 2008 release Superman: Brainiac and features the Man of Steel aptly handling day-to-day crime while helping acclimate Supergirl to Earth’s customs and managing Lois Lane’s expectations for their relationship. Personal issues take a back seat when the horrific force responsible for the destruction of Krypton – Brainiac – begins his descent upon Earth.

Brainiac has crossed the universe, collecting cities from interesting planets – including Supergirl’s home city of Kandor – and now the all-knowing, ever-improving android has his sights fixed on Metropolis. Superman must summon all of his physical and intellectual resources to protect his city, the love of his life and his newly-arrived cousin.”

Superman: Unbound arrives today on Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand. Check out the preview and all the pics after the jump.

After a bit of speculation, it’s been confirmed that Lobo will be the first character available as a DLC for Injustice: Gods Among Us. To In fact, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released a gameplay video today featuring Lobo, just to make sure everyone knows he’s coming. Of course, we’ve got the trailer for you as soon as it came to us.

In case you’re not familiar with Injustice: Gods Among Us, it “introduces a new franchise in the fighting game genre and a brand new story created in collaboration between NetherRealm Studios, DC Entertainment and comic book writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti.”

“As the story unfolds, players will experience the power, gadgetry and unparalleled strength of some the most popular DC Comics heroes and villains, such as Batman, Superman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Aquaman, The Joker and others, as they engage in epic battles in a world where the line between good and evil is blurred.”

In short, it’s pretty awesome. Soon to get a bit more awesome with the inclusion of one of our favorite characters.

Check out the gameplay fotage after the break. Lobo will be available for download beginning May 7th.

Most of what you have seen in the past on the Kickstarter Watch has been gaming related. For the most part, we don’t even get a chance to look at every Kickstarter campaign email that gets sent to us because there are so many out there. But when we got the press release about Legends of the Knight using Kickstarter to help them finish off production, there was something special about this project that made us click through and watch the trailer (which you can see embedded at the bottom of this article).

Growing up as lifelong comics fans, it was impossible to not know who Batman was. Whether you were a Marvel guy or even didn’t like Superman because he was just too powerful, almost everyone in or around the industry has a soft spot for the Batman.